Japan dispatched all six of its precious “fleet carriers” across 3,000 miles of open ocean in total secrecy, with the fleet arriving a few hundred miles north of the Hawaiian islands. The carriers launched their aircraft early on a Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
US forces were completely unprepared, and in less than ninety minutes, Japanese planes destroyed or damaged 19 US warships and 300 aircraft, and killed over 2,400 US servicemen. Almost half of the dead were crewmen from the battleship USS Arizona, which sank within minutes after a bomb struck its forward magazine, igniting more than a million pounds of ammunition. The ship’s remains still lie in the waters of Pearl Harbor, a constant memorial to that terrible morning.
Those Japanese Zeros and Kates and Vals swooping out of the sky were carrying out the first armed attack on US territory since the British burned Washington in August 1814—a long time ago, even in 1941.
Survivors, authors, and newscasters have described this attack.
Siblings Lydia Grant and Thomas Gillette witnessed firsthand the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Moments after Thomas and Monty took refuge inside the Higgins home, fourteen-year-old Lydia was awakened by Japanese machine gun bullets slamming into the wall next to her bed. The enemy rounds had passed just over her head and would’ve killed her had she been sitting up. Not fully realizing what was going on, she got out of bed and walked out onto the roof outside of her bedroom window where she saw low-flying aircraft passing just over the tops of the palm trees in her front yard.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to Congress the next day.
Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States Of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Naval and Air Forces of the Empire of Japan. It is obvious that planning the attack began many weeks ago, during the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American military forces, I regret to tell you that over three thousand American lives have been lost. No matter how long it may take us to over come this pre-meditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. Because of this unprovoked, dastardly attack by Japan, I ask that the congress declare a state of War.
Pictured above is Pearl Harbor Navy veteran Bob Fernandez smiling while being photographed at home Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Lodi, Calif. Fernandez was working as a mess cook on his ship, the USS Curtiss, the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and planned to go dancing that night at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki. Today there are only 16 still living, according to a list maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
My grandparents heard the news about the attack on the radio. Daddy was attending a movie in downtown Charleston with a group of his Citadel cadets. The movie was silenced, and a man’s voice spoke into the auditorium with the news. Dad’s junior class was sent for training at various officer training schools and then to war the next year. The Greatest Generation answered America’s call.
It was eighty-three days ago today that Japan attacked America. Let’s remember Pearl Harbor.
Sheila Ingle 